Nouveau Pauvre

Nouveau Pauvre

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition (2002) defines nouveau riche as "A pejorative term for one who has recently become rich and who spends money conspicuously. From French, meaning 'new rich.'"

Given that people can go broke overnight or lose their jobs, shouldn't we also coin a term nouveau pauvre to describe one who has recently become poor and who has no money to spend CONSPICUOUSLY?

Somehow, I think among the population, when one is unable to find the money to spend conspicuously, they deem themselves poor.

I resent that thought - no money does not mean poor. It could mean poor financial management, laziness, or even poor financial acumen. It could be the result of a prerogatory decision to remain at the doors of poverty, an attempt at eliciting the pity of the "rich".

It would be interesting to differentiate the truly impoverished and the nouveau pauvre. Only then do we know if we are dealing with a true crisis or are we dealing with cases fake poverty.